Xref: 127.0.0.1 rec.aquaria.freshwater.plants:77819

My plants grow fast and to keep low nitrates is very hard. Nitrates always
stay 20-40ppm. I tried almost everything but nothing helps. I just can't
find the cause of the problem. By the way which one is it? Brush-Red or
Hair algae? What would you do in my shoes besides buying a true SAE. I
know how to balance the tank but nothing works I suspect the gravel is
bad. Algae keeps infecting my plants because of gravel. I believe, once I
start over I will destroy current algae so it won't grow back. I'm just a
little bit confused now because to start over will take me about a month to
do a cycle and cleaning everything in 70G tank. The funny thing is I tried
a few experiments by putting some plants in dark place for two weeks in a
bowl of water but algae isn't afraid of dark My lights stay up for 10
hours a day, I feed once a day, I do water change once a week about 20%,
etc. About 2 month ago I cut all my infected plants and everything was
perfect and a little later it started again.





"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
I might buy the plants from you but I sure need your advice again. I
don't
know what to do now but I'm thinking to start from a scratch. Can you
please ID my algae. It looks like Hair or Brush Red Aglae.

Yup, that's what it is. I had that algae briefly, when I first set up my
first
real planted tank.

How can I remove nitrates besides water change to
keep it under 10ppm?

If your plants grow well, they will remove nitrate. In fact, you may have
to
add nitrate to your tank.

Have you seen Chuck's article on algae?

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_algae.htm

He claims that a common cause of this problem is not enough nitrate! I
think
that was why I had it. I put compact flourescent lights over my tank and
a ton
of plants in it, and nitrates dropped to zero in days. Probably for the
first
time in years. Being new at the time, I had no idea that could be a
problem.

Try searching this newsgroup (at Google) on BBA, and you'll find a lot of
discussion on it. Pay no attention to those calling it Satanic. g
It's
algae, uglier and tougher than most, but still just algae. SAEs eat it,
which
is why planted tank folk like them so much. I think they prefer the
tender new
growth, though, rather than the tough old stuff, so if your tank is
heavily
infested, pruning leaves that are covered with algae will help, even if
you
have SAEs.

I wouldn't start over. You need to learn to keep the tank in balance, or
you'll just the have same problem, with this or some other algae. You can
cut
off infested leaves, which will help your tank look better right away. To
fix
the problem in the long term, consider getting some true SAEs if you don't
have
any, and adjust your nutrients. And if you got rid of a lot of stem
plants,
well, maybe you got rid of too many, and need to add some back. :-)

I don't restrict nutrients to try to control algae. Not even phosphate.
I
have a ton of phosphate in my tap water (40 ppm!). It hasn't caused algae
problems for me. As long as I don't let nitrate drop to zero in my tanks,
I
don't have any algae problems.

Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/